Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

someplace for a meeting with the Bar Association. I remember distinctly that Utter was
flying his plane. Dolliver was in the front. I’m in the back with Hughie Rosellini. There’s four
of us. And Utter is saying, “Now, how long has it been since you’ve flown, Jim?”
And he said, “God, it’s been forever.”
And he said, “Well, here’s this and here’s that.”
And Rosellini was having a fit back there.
Hughes: I’ll bet! White knuckles.
Dimmick: Anyway, we get there and one of the lawyers – I’m not going to tell you who it
was –came up to me and said, “You know, I’m nominated for vetting the lawyers who want
to be on district court, on the federal bench. And we’ve given a list to Slade ( Gorton) and
Dan ( Evans), and they’re not happy with the list. Would you be interested?”
And I said, “Well, right now I would not want any publicity that said I was interested
in that. I’m running for election.”
He says, “Well, if we gave it to you would you take it?”
And I said, “If you gave it to me on a silver platter without any interference with my
election, I probably would take it, sure.”
That was that. Isn’t that amazing?
Hughes: I’m speechless.
Dimmick: So they went back to the committee and ran my name through Slade and Dan.
Hughes: Had you known those two over the years?
Dimmick: Well, I’d seen them off and on. And of course Dan had appointed me to the
Superior Court in 1976.
Hughes: In the wake of that though, did you get to know him better?
Dimmick: No, not particularly.
Hughes: How about Slade Gorton, who had been attorney general before winning election
to the U.S. Senate?
Dimmick: No, I didn’t know him any better. … So in my brain I figured that one of them had
somebody they wanted to go on the State Supreme Court, in my job. I really do feel that
way, that Slade had somebody in mind for that job. Then I won my election in 1984 with
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